I didn’t really get that either. I can’t remember other examples, but I feel like this sort of thing has happened a few times in recent Pratchett novels – something that seems fairly important occurs, but it’s not clear exactly what or why.
In this specific case the explanation I came up with that I like best is:
There was a gap in the bridge, but the train was going fast enough – perhaps aided by the faith that Dick and everyone else had in Iron Girder – that it was able to make it over the gap, land on the other side, and keep going.
But it doesn’t seem like this can be what Pratchett really intended, because if he did then why would he even mention the golems being sent to Uberwald? They’re described as tunneling their way back to Ankh-Morpork soon afterward, so if they weren’t carrying the train then it’s not clear what else they were needed for.
The golems were sent to finish building the bridge, since it wasn’t completed when Iron Girder started the journey to Uberwald. At least part of the bridge was built, Vimes went out and stood on it in the fog & they rode on it for a little bit, until the flying happens.
So I guess maybe the golems had built part of the bridge, and the train flew over the gap?I don’t know why Pratchett couldn’t have thrown in a line or two to make it totally clear what happened, though. I assume he thought that what he wrote was clear enough, but his editor could have suggested a minor change there. It didn’t seem like it was supposed to be unclear what really happened, it felt like we were supposed to go “Oh, of course, it happened like that!”
I read it again a couple of weeks ago, after being unimpressed originally, and it hasn’t improved; I think it helps to regard it as a bit of Discworld fanfic: there’s no tension between the human characters at all, everybody just wafts about in an air of co-operatively vague jollity, the best of chums as ever were.
the golems were the track. Hence why they still had to finish it after the golems went home.
And I, too, was disappointed by it. I think my biggest beef was how many things weren’t tied in. Like, the Watch is having problems with relations with the dwarves… so where’s the highest-ranking dwarf in the watch through all of this? Why are they sending the forensic investigator to negotiations, instead of the captain?
Or, remember the Axle Device from Thud? Remember how it’s claimed by the city at the end, and the city engineer estimates what he can do with it as “everything”? If Ankh-Morpork is going to start in on the Industrial Revolution, you’d think that something like that would be involved.
I also think that, like in Unseen Academicals, Pratchett latched onto something that he personally was passionate about, and assumed that everyone in the world would be passionate about it. No, not everyone is in love with football, or with steam.
I know this is an old thread, but I just finally got this. Didn’t buy it before because the last few books haven’t been very good, but couldn’t resist when I found the paperback version on sale for 4.90e.
And now I wish I hadn’t bought it even on that price - I only managed to read a bit over 40 pages before I got too sad to continue. There’s not much left of his style here, it’s all meandering mush. As somebody who has dabbled in writing as a hobby I’ve always loved to read books by authors whose skills I knew I wouldn’t be able to match no matter what and Pratchett certainly was one of those. This stuff, on the other hand … I guess there’s still some bits and pieces of him left in it but other than those shards of bygone brilliance the book is barely readable.
